Saturday, June 04, 2005

iRiver South Asia Playlist

One of my favorite things about visiting South Asia, in recent years anyway, is the unique (despite overly repetitive) playlist of MTV India. Sure, some really awful Bollywood songs are included, but where else will you hear a track with such poignant lyrics like "just chill chill, just chill" repeated over and over again, right? So after being in Sri Lanka for over a week, I have added some of the following to my iRiver music playlist. And if you want to have this argument, I like the iRiver better than the Ipod, but lets not make this post an iRiver vs. iPod one.

Bombay Rockers-- Rock The Party. This Danish duo, includes one desi and one gora exactly and approximately. The gora sings in English, and the desi of course sings in Hindi. How novel of an idea? The song is catchy, but the track's music is not original, the lyrics are not really intricate, and it seems like the Rocker's are trying a little too hard to be Europe's answer to the Neptunes (trucker hat, bandana around the wrist and all).

Daddy Yankee--Mirame. To be fair, I actually put this on my playlist before I left the states (along with Raje Shwari and Beenie man's Below the Waist and her track Country Style with Petey Pablo), but this spindi (Spanish + Hindi) reggaeton track is hot, so I had to give it a plug.

Abhijeet Sawant--Mohabbatein Lutaaunga. India's answer to Kelly Clarkson, Reueben Studdard, and Clay Aiken, all rolled into one. Sawant was the winner of "Indian Idol" and can really belt out a tune. It is a little corny, and in the video of this song he does some weird forehead pointing thing, but some of his tracks are catchy, this one in particular.

The Rishi Rich Project--Dil Mera.—This track is on the Kya Kool Hai Hum Soundtrack. I haven't seen the movie, but the trailer makes it look hip, and having the Project participate, makes the film even hipper. I was actually pleasantly surprised to hear a lot of Raghav and Jay Sean tracks all over the radio here in Sri Lanka. Sonu Nigam, Jayesh Gandhi and Amrita Kak-- Just Chill. I had to put it on, just to laugh. This is apparently the opening track for David Dhawan's new movie Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya, starring Salman Khan and Sushmita Sen. Remember to "just chill chill, just chill."

Blaaze--Bunty Aur Babli. This is the lead track for the movie of the same name starring Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee. The song is a rap song and the video has Amitabh lip-synching, quite ridiculously, along to the lyrics. Its unfortunate because the movie looks good.